Justice Department to probe teen's death

September 28, 2004|By Andrea F. Siegel | Andrea F. Siegel,SUN STAFF

The U.S. Department of Justice will open a probe into the death of a black Pasadena teenager, Noah Jamahl Jones, who died in a brawl between his group of African-American friends and a group of white youths outside a party in July.

Department of Justice spokesman Eric Holland said yesterday that officials would not comment beyond confirming that the agency's civil rights division is initiating the investigation after a request from the Anne Arundel County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The NAACP, members of the Jones family and congressional representatives called for a federal investigation after Anne Arundel County prosecutors dropped murder charges against four young white men who had been accused in Jones' July 24 death.

Jones, 17, who was about to start his senior year at Pasadena's Northeast High School, was fatally injured in the fight a few blocks from his home.

Within the month, prosecutors dropped charges against the four men, saying that preliminary autopsy findings were inconsistent with the police's early investigation. However, the grand jury continues to investigate.

The motive underlying the fight has been unclear. Various parties have pointed to longtime grudges between two groups of young men, tension over interracial friendships and dating, and allegations that the white men were threatening a friend of the black teens.

Weathersbee's office dropped the charges just before it would have had to take them to a grand jury for possible indictment or to a judge in preliminary hearings. In the meantime, investigations by Weathersbee's office and police continue.

Initial police findings indicated that Jones and a few friends went to help a friend who was being threatened, and that in the ensuing fight, Jones was beaten, kicked and died of his injuries.

David P. Putzi, who represented Jacob Tyler Fortney, 18, of Pasadena, one of the four men initially charged, said federal investigators would "find out what everyone else knows - that this was not a crime based on race."

Lawyer Peter S. O'Neill, who represented David Michael George of Glen Burnie, another of the four initially charged, predicted that the federal probe could only exonerate his client, who was 19 at the time.

Richard Elbert McLeod, 18, of Chestertown and Joshua David Bradley, 20, of Pasadena also had murder charges brought against them and dropped.